Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  4 / 10

  Hyde Park On Hudson is as bland as FDR's "special relationship". A pivotal moment in the uniting of two nations during an uneasy time of political turmoil. War is looming, royalty could be ceased and Roosevelt is succumbing to disease and frailty. Yet, much focus during this dramatisation is on the king of England "bigging up" hot dogs and, I quote, "shoving as many hot dogs in all of my orifices". Yikes! Roosevelt invites the king and queen of England to his mother's house for a weekend, in an attempt to help the nation out. Meanwhile, one of his cousins forms an intimate relationship with him. And so the story attempts to balance both of these plots, but to much disappointment. Long story short, this was boring. Disengaging, poorly paced (despite being only ninety minutes) and sporadically written. Nothing really happens, and for such a pivotal moment in history I would've expected more power and drama (or atleast something...) Its light-hearted nature and fluffiness works against the subject its screenplay is attempting to present. The various plot shifts between the members of royalty and the boundlessly dull Daisy makes for a disjointed film, and that's not even mentioning the clunky dialogue. Which is a huge shame considering Murray's charming performance as an older Roosevelt, Colman's uptight role as the queen and Linney's innocent naivety as Daisy. Driving around the countryside is pleasant to watch, sure. But given the short runtime, it was at the expense of adding dimensionality to its characters and story. Linney's constant narration acts as background descriptions in order to address important facts and decisions that the film decides not to illustrate. Not nearly as interesting as it should've been, and quite frankly a monotonous borefest that takes too much of a nice approach.

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